Covid, the delta variant in Morocco increases infections tenfold in less than a month
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Alaina
- . July 19, 2021
- . Update: July 19, 2021 8:22 pm
Covid-19 infections in Morocco are growing at a rapid pace. The shift from 288 cases on June 21 to 2,853 on July 17 describes a much faster propagation than, for example, leading to the peak of autumn 2020, with 6,195 points in just 24 hours.
According to Health Ministry statistics, the mountain had been gradually reached in 115 days, passing from 249 contagions of July 11 to 2,776 on October 4. Up to over 6 thousand on November 13. Now, with the delta variant, 26 days were enough for the same progression.
There are currently 15,253 active cases, of which 481 were hospitalized in critical conditions. The ICU employment rate jumped from 7.3 percent in early July to 15.2 percent today. Casablanca continues to be the most affected metropolis. With Aid al Kebira, the festival of sacrifice at the gates, closures, and curfews become unpopular, especially given the autumn general elections. Community prayers for the day of the feast, the central recurrence of the Islamic calendar, were banned.
Morocco will produce the COVID-19 vaccine
The project, strongly desired by the king, aims to initially produce five million anti-Covid doses in the country with an investment in partnership with the private sector of 500 million dollars. The king wants to promote the kingdom’s self-sufficiency and make Morocco a leading biotechnological platform on the African continent and in the world.
The project sees the collaboration of the Chinese of the Sinopharm Group, to which the CEO Liu Jingzhen attended the event and made a remote presentation from China. Recipharm CEO Marc Funk also presented the project to establish vaccine production capacity in Morocco.
The result of a public-private partnership with an investment of 500 million dollars, the project aims at an initial capacity of 5 million doses of the anti-Covid19 vaccine per month and then grows in the medium term; it follows the king’s telephone agreements with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
On the occasion of the ceremony Samir Machour, industrial biotechnology expert and vice president of Samsung Biologics, presented the project together with the president of the Sinopharm group, Liu Jingzhen, who spoke online from China, and the general president of the Recipharm Company, Marc Funk. They signed three essential agreements:
1 – Memorandum on cooperation for the anti-Covid vaccine19 between Morocco and the Chinese national pharmaceutical group (Sinopharm).
2 – Memorandum of understanding between the Moroccan state and the Recipharm company relating to the vaccine production capacity plant in the Kingdom of Morocco.
3 – Contract to provide the aseptic filling plants of the Moroccan Therapeutic Society (Sothema) to the Moroccan State to manufacture the anti-Covid19 vaccine owned by the Sinopharm company between the Moroccan State and the Sothema company.
The ceremony was attended by the head of government Saad Eddine El Otmani, the adviser to King Fouad Ali El Himmat, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, the CEO of Attijari Wafa-Bank, Mohamed Kettani, and the CEO of Popular Bank, Mohamed Karim Mounir.
State of emergency extended until August 10
The term of the state of health emergency has been postponed to August 10, with the possibility of extensions. The Moroccan government has been extending the extraordinary measure, in force without interruption since March 2019, to control the spread of the virus since December 21, 2019. On May 20, with the reduction of the night curfew, many had begun to hope for a return to normalcy.
